Turner & Maschi, Chandler

• Nevada is a mass incarceration state—African Americans make up 9% of the general population and 29% of the prison population—and the classes more or less reflect that
• Proximity


  Getting close to the issues of mass incarceration and with the men, women, and young people who languish in U.S. prisons
• Bryan Stevenson: '"You can't understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close"'
• In schools of social work proximity also means examining classes and field placements for the presence or absence of incarceration-related scholarship and opportunities
• The goal is "to unravel a caste-like system that operates to lock people into a permanent second-class status and is sustained by an economic system that is immoral"
• Feminists in the forefront of struggles against mass incarceration

  • Angela Davis
  • Michelle Alexander
  • Elizabeth Hinton
  • Ruth Wilson Gilmore
  • Patricia O'Brien
  • Cassandra Little
• Kinship


  "no daylight separates us"
• Development of professional identity and identification with the social work profession as a whole has much in common with feminist and empowerment theory
• Feminist theories


  Examine role expectations and status and power differences related to gender
• Empowerment theory


  Looks at the role of race/ethnicity/culture and, to some extent, class status in shaping individuals and problems
• Feminist social workers were among the first to recognize that empowerment must be anchored within women's own experiences
• Empowerment


  Seeks to increase the personal, interpersonal and political power of oppressed and marginalized populations for individual and collective transformation
• A feminist perspective has many things in common with the strengths perspective such as empowerment, advocacy, collaboration, connectedness, and mutuality
• Feminist and empowerment social workers practice at 'the intersection of private troubles and public issues'
• Feminist social work


  Based upon the desire to change societal structures so that women will no longer be oppressed and will further develop a sense of self-efficacy,self-esteem and self-confidence as a path of claiming power
• A traditional psychotherapeutic view of depression is that anger is turned inward or, particularly for women, 'learned helplessness'
• A relational and mutual approach encourages women (and men) who are depressed to help each other and validate the source of their helplessness and oppression being a result of inequality and of being devalued in society
• Conscientization or critical consciousness

  An awareness of oppression in our society and all the social and political implications of oppression and discrimination
• Empowerment


  The process of increasing personal, interpersonal or political power to improve the lives of marginalized people
• The ultimate goal of empowerment is the sociopolitical liberation of marginalized communities
• Empowerment and feminist practitioners and educators believe that a person who has repeatedly experienced oppression can incorporate a negative self-image and low self-esteem, and this is just what the oppressor intends
• Group work is a very effective way of developing critical consciousness and increasing a sense of self-efficacy as members become involved and begin to identify with others who have been in similar situations
• Community building and organizing are essential strategies to bring about this change in consciousness